In a fraction of a second, nature photographers manage to capture the raw essence of life. The Refocus Photographer of the Year Awards 2025 reveal a series of exceptional photographs that transform fleeting scenes of nature into unforgettable works of art.
A lifetime's masterpiece: a perfect heist
The top prize at the 2025 Refocus Photographer of the Year Awards goes to Baiju Patil for "The Perfect Heist," a suspended moment when a pink heron catches a fish in the marshes of Bharatpur, India. Fifteen years of scouting and waiting in hides were required to capture this flash of predation, at the precise moment the prey disappears into the hunter's beak. The rosy light, the geometry of the composition, the invisible tension of the moment: all contribute to transforming this hunting scene into an almost painterly image of quiet power.
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Aerial ballets and celestial battles
In the icy heights or above the waves, duels between birds of prey, terns, and gulls take on the air of brutal choreography. A golden eagle swoops down on its target in "Sky Hunters"; elsewhere, two seabirds clash in a ballet of feathers, wings wide open, talons extended. These moments reveal the raw beauty of survival: a poetry of the instant captured at the speed of a wingbeat.
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When the infinitely small becomes epic
Macrophotography, however, offers a completely different perspective: that of invisible worlds. Jumping spiders leaping at dragonflies, cane toads devouring scorpions and beetles… Each enlarged scene becomes a mythological drama, where every detail—fangs, scales, dewdrops—takes on a monumental dimension. Thanks to specialized lenses, these photographers reveal a fascinating parallel universe.
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Animal gentleness: the other side of the savage
The selection for the 2025 Refocus Photographer of the Year Awards doesn't only showcase the "violence" of the natural world. Some images capture unexpected gestures of tenderness: a lion cub snuggled against its mother, a polar bear gently carrying its cub on its back, a baby elephant seeking the reassuring trunk of its matriarch. These images counterbalance the harshness of predation and remind us that maternal instinct, protection, and the passing on of knowledge are also fundamental to the natural world.
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A rare alchemy between patience and technology
Behind each image, there are months – sometimes years – of waiting, failures, and adjustments. Some photographers use drones to approach animals without disturbing them, while others rely on silent cameras, installed remotely, and triggered at the opportune moment.
The work of these award-winning photographers at the Refocus Photographer of the Year Awards 2025 is therefore not only technical: it stems from a form of devotion, where technology is put at the service of wonder, in absolute respect for the species and their environment.
